Surprises
by purplebunny94
Summary: Previously Birthday Surprises. A look into what life is like for the Tracy brothers as they deal with the surprise injuries/illness little brother Alan bring throughout his childhood through a sereis of one-shots. Will not be chronological. Movie


**A/N Sorry it has taken so long to put up a new chapter and sorry it is rather short. I better also point out that this is not really a new chapter but a changed story. It will still be along the same lines as I was going with the other one but there will be no Lucy as what I was going to do she would not fit in. **

**Will update as soon as I can but I have started the my most important year at school as the grades at the end of this year I will determine if I can go to University or not.**

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot.**

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Unconsciously rubbing my twenty four week pregnant stomach, I watched as my four young sons play with each other in the park. It was mid October so the leaves were beginning to fall off the trees one by one. The noise they were making pleased me more than anything, I could not believe that these handsome young boys were my own.

After marrying the man of the dreams thirteen years ago I was only planning on having two children but that plan went out of the window a just under two years after my second child was born. The kids make me happy and I have got to admit when I found out I was expecting number five I was secretly pleased.

My oldest son, Scott Carpenter, was born December 12th 1994 so was going to be eleven at the end of year. He is the exact copy of his father Jeff and is currently the most outgoing of them all. He is very interested in flying and planes at the moment and would do anything to sit in the cockpit of our family plane.

John Glenn is my second oldest, 3rd February 1997, at the age of eight he is my quietest ad would prefer to be reading in his room rather than playing with his brothers. He is the male version of me right down to the blue eyes. Even though he enjoys reading he is more interested in the night sky and would if he was allowed stay up the whole night.

My soon to be middle child, Virgil Grissom, 1st July 1999, is my wee helper at the sweet age of six. Born is a mix between me and his father. He is the one that is interested in the way things work and has been from a very young age. His obsession at the moment is how babies are made and has found it rather amusing watch my stomach growing bigger as the weeks go on.

My current youngest, Gordon Cooper, has not long turned four, 23rd September 2001. With copper red hair and bright green eyes it is the family joke that he is the milkman's son. He is the family joker and makes everyone laugh at the antics he gets up to. He is also very fond of water, to the extent he has to practically be pulled out of the bath every evening.

I have no idea yet if baby number five will be a boy or a girl yet and we're waiting until he/she is born to find out. Even though we don't know the sex we have already picked out names. If the baby is another boy he will be Alan Shepherd and if it's a girl she will be Lucille Elizabeth, after me. Though I have got to say we hope it's a girl, which will make a change for us. He/she is already a very active baby and seems to be moving around almost constantly.

Around a week later, the baby seemed to have stopped moving as much, but I never really thought about it. It was when I realised that the baby's movements had stopped almost completely a few days that I began to worry. Making an appointment with my obstetrician for the following afternoon I began to fear the worst. The baby wasn't due until late January and if it was born now it would be around fourteen weeks premature.

My appointment the next day was luckily during the day which meant I did not have any of the boys with me as they were all at school or in Gordon's case nursery. Walking into the obstetrician's office my nerves got the better of me and I was beginning to shake. After checking in and sitting down I worried for the baby growing inside of me.

"Tracy"

the doctor called as she walked in to the room. I slowly stood up as if standing up normally would harm my unborn child. Cradling my swollen stomach I got up and walked over to the open door. My doctor – Dr Orr – made small talk with me as we walked through to her office. Once she had closed the door and let me sit down, the questions about how I felt started. Answering them I began to realise that something wasn't right for an active twenty six week old foetus to stop moving so suddenly. After not being able to tell what was wrong from my answers I was sent for an ultrasound to determine what was happening.

It was during the ultrasound that the shock came. I was talking to the technician about the rest of the family and she was telling me about her family when she suddenly stopped mid sentence. She abruptly got up and reached for the phone and I could hear her mumbling and was only able to pick out the words "cord" and "distress". My word at that point shut down I could not believe this was happening. I knew what was wrong as I trained as a midwife before I met Jeff.

As the technician walked back into the room I knew what she was going to say before she even opened her mouth.

"Your baby has the umbilical cord around it's neck and is beginning to show signs of foetal distress, Dr Orr is suggesting that you are taken to the hospital to have the baby delivered as soon as possible." were the words that came out.

"Take me then" I stumbled "but let me phone my husband first and arrange child care for my other kids"

I could not believe this was happening of all things. Yes Gordon was early but he was only 4 weeks because he was so big and the doctors delivered him for my health, but 14 weeks. The baby is not fully formed yet and there is a significant chance of it dying. My phone call to Jeff was extremely distressful and I could here him cry with me on the other side of the phone.

I was taken to the hospital in the back of an ambulance because Jeff wasn't able to come down to the doctor's surgery but he was going to meet me at the hospital. On arriving at the hospital I was taken up to the maternity ward and given an injection of steroids that were to help strengthen the baby's lungs slightly before he was born.

The caesarean section was scheduled for five o'clock that evening which by the time I had arrived at the hospital was only an hour away.

The nurses helped me get ready and I was beginning to think that Jeff would make when he ran through the doors as I was being pushed into theatre. One of the nurses took him away to get changed into scrubs so he could be with me, whilst the rest took me to get an anaesthetic. After the anaesthetic was administered I was wheeled through to the theatre where the surgical team finished the last minute preparations by putting up a screen so I could not see what was happening and spreading iodine over my swollen stomach to get rid of the rest of the bacteria that may have been on my skin. Whilst these preparations were being made Jeff who had now changed into blue scrubs was escorted into the room by a nurse.

As soon as Jeff was sat by my head the rather cheery surgeon told us that it was

"Time to get this baby show on the road"

I was still as apprehensive about this baby of mine being born now, but even though I was not wanting it to I knew that the baby would have more of a chance of surviving if it was born. I felt a pressure on my stomach as the surgeon cut through the layers f skin and fat to my womb. It was only around five minutes before we heard a weak baby's cry and an "it's a boy" from one of the nurses. Another nurse kindly let down the screen so we could see him before he was taken to the NICU to be cleaned up and assessed.

Half an hour after the birth of Alan Shepherd Tracy, I was taken back into a hospital room and told to rest as I had just had major surgery, whilst Jeff went to check on how Alan was doing and to phone home to tell them the news. I think I was sleeping when Jeff came back into the room but I can vaguely remember him saying that the baby was very ill but stable for the moment.

I woke up early the next morning to the sound of my four older boys entering the room. A small figure clambered up onto my bed, ignoring all protests from his father to get down.

"Mummy?" he said "When can we go see the baby?"

Opening my eyes I saw my young red headed son sitting over me.

"Soon Gordy, soon" I reassured him "but Alan is very sick and needs to be looked after by the doctors until he gets better."

A quiet "ok" was the only answer I got.

I felt so sorry for Gordon as he had been looking forward to the birth of this baby since I told him I was having a baby, and according to Jeff, when he told the boys last night that the baby was another boy wee Gordon was ecstatic.

After the boys had left for school Jeff told me what he had been told about Alan the previous night. My baby only weighed 1lb 12oz and was as long as his fathers fore arm. He was currently on a ventilator; they were keeping an eye out on his heart rate as it was irregular and it was thought that he had a heart murmur but this was to be expected as he was born fourteen weeks early. I was luckily enough to be taken up to see we Allie that afternoon and I could not believe how small he was and all I wanted to do was cuddle him even though he was in an incubator with a blanket over it to stop his eyes being disfigured by the light before they had even formed properly.

My wee baby was in hospital for almost 3 months before we could take him home. In that time he had been on and off the ventilator and had to have to hernias repaired. He was well on the way to recovery when we brought him home 2nd February 2005 exactly three months after his birth, 2nd November 2004. All of the boys were pleased to have their younger brother home and they have all decided that having Alan in our lives will be interesting.


End file.
